Manhattan Penthouse Sold to Anonymous Bag of Money for $90 Million or So!

A mystery buyer from a mystery country of origin has purchased the penthouse at 157 West 57th Street for a mystery sum between $90 million and $100 million. It’s a new record for the price of a Manhattan apartment—congratulations! We normally would have just gone ahead and said “Поздравляю,” but The New York Times specifically asked the building’s developer whether the new tenant was Russian: “‘[Extell Development Company’s Gary] Barnett was quick to dispel any notion that the One57 penthouse was sold to a Russian, saying the buyer was not Russian, Ukrainian or from ‘any other part of the former Soviet Union.’” Barnett revealed that the owner is “someone that people would recognize.” Hmm. Barnett did not, as far as we know, explicitly say Mitt Romney was not the purchaser, so let’s run with that. Hooray Mitt Romney. Congratulations to him then, or 110011101101111!

The inestimable Curbed has a copy of the apartment’s floorplan, which was not made available online by brokers. The Times reports that the nearly 11,000 square-foot apartment has 23-foot ceilings and a nice view of the park—and a new owner who will quickly discover that the two-avenue walk to the Columbus Circle Whole Foods feels a lot longer than two avenues.